What special education means for you Approximately 166,000 students in the City’s public schools have a disability. This fall, students with disabilities entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades will have access to the same schools they would attend if they did not have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). An IEP determines the services a student with a disability receives. Federal law ensures that students with disabilities are educated in a way that will provide the greatest opportunity to access the general education curriculum and to the greatest extent possible be educated with their peers without disabilities (referred to as the least restrictive environment). Over the past 10 years, New York City has seen an increase in students with disabilities graduating from high school. However, national research shows that the more time all students are educated together, the more likely students with disabilities will graduate ready for college and careers. And there is greater success for all students—with and without disabilities.
For more information on special education in our schools, speak with your child’s principal, parent coordinator, or attend Family Office Hours. Parents who have questions about the way their child with disabilities is being taught in school should contact their school’s parent coordinator or principal.
Succeeding together: a father’s story Our daughter Katia was born three months prematurely with numerous developmental issues. Her eyes, brain, heart, lungs, muscle tone, pretty much everything, were a concern. After several invasive surgeries, we were finally able to take her home from the neonatal intensive care unit. In the beginning, we were primarily concerned about her survival. By the age of two, she was out of the danger zone and ready to start daycare. Katia had many developmental delays for which she received a full range of intervention services: physical, occupational and speech therapies. Fortunately, she was developing quite well intellectually, although she needed help with physical and social issues. 8
For a complete schedule of office hours and more information, visit NYC.gov and search for Special Education or call 311.
One of the parents at Katia’s daycare turned out to be a special education teacher who told us about a unique program at the school where she taught, P.S. 503 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It was near our home and the program she described sounded fantastic: a customized program with continual assessments to identify each student’s strengths and weaknesses; and a team of teachers including special education teachers, paraprofessionals, therapists, a social worker, and a psychologist who would all be involved in her care and education. My first impression of the school was very positive. The building itself was very clean and well kept and every teacher and administrator I met was unfailingly polite, kind and professional. Still, I was nervous. It was a leap into the unknown. Kindergarten turned out even better than we had hoped. We enrolled Katia in a self-contained class where she would receive lots of support. Her teachers quickly recognized that her reading and math skills were at grade level and created a more flexible schedule that allowed Katia to attend math and reading classes with her non-